I've read a ton throughout the wild ride of the last few years. Below I'm posting the straight list of titles read from 2022 to present (I finally started keeping a running one in my late 30s, after a lifetime of giving friends long plot synopses but forgetting authors' names, or going blank when I wanted to recommend a book to a student, or beginning a novel only to realize three chapters in that I'd already read it) here, and I hope to fill in some reviews and recommendations of the standouts soon..
In the meantime please scroll through -- and ask me about it if there's a title you've been meaning to read, or you want to know why I got obsessed with a particular writer whose name you see repeating, or if you're just like what should I read next if I'm looking for something with these particular qualities. Really! The English teacher in me is still very much alive, if idle, and full of dorkily enthusiastic guidance for you!
I am grateful that I've kept the capacity and desire to get stuck into a book even when experiencing periods of severe brain fog and fatigue; it's an invaluable resource and a wonderful escape. Also I want to offer a respectfully quiet but enthusiastic stomp and holler pf appreciation for public libraries, may they survive the current conflagrations and continue to sustain us. It's a delight that they exist in general and a gift to me that they are so excellent here in Amherst.
I put a * next to books that I'd read before, usually many years ago, but otherwise haven't recorded any ranking or rating in this list -- they are just title and author, in chronological-ish order as I read them. ☕️📚✨👵🏻
2025
The God of the Woods, Liz Moore
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry
The Time of the Child, Niall Williams
A Reason To See You Again, Jami Attenburg
So Lucky, Nicola Griffith
Spear, Nicola Griffith
Hell Is A World Without You, Jason Kirk
Menewood, Nicola Griffith
Hild, Nicola Griffith
The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden
My Good Bright Wolf, Sarah Moss
Shy Creatures, Clare Chambers
Spin, Peter Zheutlin
The Divorcées, Rowan Beard
*The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Women’s Hotel, Daniel Lavery
2024
The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich
The Great Divide, Cristina Henríquez
Ambition Monster, Jennifer Romolini
How to Say Babylon, Safiya Sinclair
Rednecks, Taylor Brown
Cahokia Jazz, Francis Spuford
The Heart in Winter, Kevin Barry
Golden Hill, Francis Spuford
Peggy, Rebeca Godfrey
*The Color of Water, James McBride
Death At the Sign Of the Rook, Kate Atkinson
The Most Fun We Ever Had, Claire Lombardo
Giving Up the Ghost, Hilary Mantel
Same As It Ever Was, Claire Lombardo
Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout
The Garden Against Time, Olivia Laing
All Fours, Miranda July
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Swift River, Essie Chambers
The Weird Sisters, Eleanor Brown
The Wildes, Louis Bayard
Fire Exit, Morgan Talty
The Magician King, Lev Grossman
Grown Women, Sarai Johnson
The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman
Home, Marilynne Robinson
*The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
Long Island, Colm Tóibín
Selling the Dream, Jane Marie
The Final Solution, Michael Chabon
James, Percival Everett
Whale Fall, Elizabeth O’Connor
Courting Mr Lincoln, Louis Bayard
This Strange Eventful History, Claire Messud
The Secret River, Kate Grenville
Small Joys, Elvin James Mensah
Real Americans, Rachel Khong
How to Build a Boat, Elaine Feeney
The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish
Wild Houses, Colin Barrett
As You Were, Elaine Feeney
Restless Dolly Maunder, Kate Grenville
The Colony, Audrey Magee
Venus of Chalk, Susan Stinson
The Hunter, Tana French
Candida Royale & the Sexual Revolution: A History From Below, Jane Kamensky
Yellow Earth, John Sayles
Spider in a Tree, Susan Stinson
Loot, Tania James
The Blackwater Lightship, Colm Toibin
The Book of Love, Kelly Link
Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar
Village Weavers, Myriam Chancy
The Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters
Brother Robert: Growing Up With Robert Johnson, Annye Anderson
The Road from Belhaven, Margot Livesay
Dead Dead Girls, Nekesa Afia
Sea Wife, Amity Gaige
The Foundling, Ann Leary
Lolly WIllowes, Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters
The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey
The American Daughters, Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Whiskey Tender, Deborah Jackson Taffa
Night Watch, Sarah Waters
Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange
All Clear, Connie Willis
Crow Mary, Kathleen Grissom
Dodger, Terry Pratchett
Blackout, Connie Willis
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
A Council of Dolls, Mona Susan Power
Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood
Tipping The Velvet, Sarah Waters
A Grandmother Begins the Story, Michelle Porter
Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett
Affinity, Sarah Waters
The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett
*The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood
I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett
A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett
The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes, Rob Wilkins
Old Babes In the Woods, Margaret Atwood
Runaway, Alice Munro
*Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
Bangkok Wakes To Rain, Pitchaya Subanthad
*The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon
The Latecomers, Helen Klein Ross
Hester, Laurie Lico Albanese
The Love of A Good Woman, Alice Munro
A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason
Weyward, Emilia Hart
All My Puny Sorrows, Miriam Toews
The View From Castle Rock, Alice Munro
After the Funeral, Tessa Hadley
Hazardous Spirits, Anbara Salam
The Bee Sting, Paul Murray
2023
North Woods, Daniel Mason
We Sinners, Hanna Pylvainen
The Square of Sevens, Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Wellness, Nathan Hill
The End of Drum-Time, Hanna Pylvainen
*Emily of New Moon, LM Montgomery
The New Naturals, Gabriel Bump
Day, Michael Cunningham
Tinkers, Paul Harding
The Witching Tide, Margaret Meyer
Luckenbooth, Jenni Fagan
Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride
Actress, Anne Enright
Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead
Absolution, Alice McDermott
A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann Ni Ghriofa
The Gathering, Anne Enright
The Wren, The Wren, Anne Enright
Flight, Lynn Steger Strong
The Turner House, Angela Flournoy
The Forgotten Waltz, Anne Enright
The Unsettled, Ayana Mathis
The Fraud, Zadie Smith
The Green Road, Anne Enright
Doppelganger:A Trip Into The Mirror World, Naomi Klein
Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Ayana Mathis
Like, Ali Smith
Night Watch, Jayne Anne Phillips
The Liars’ Gospel, Naomi Alderman
Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue
Snow Road Station, Elizabeth Hay
Spring, Ali Smith
Akin, Emma Donoghue
Hotel World, Ali Smith
Late In the Day, Tessa Hadley
There But For The, Ali Smith
The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff
The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue
Learned By Heart, Emma Donoghue
The Accidental, Ali Smith
The London Train, Tessa Hadley
Summer, Ali Smith
The Master Bedroom, Tessa Hadley
Tom Lake, Ann Patchett
How to Be Both, Ali Smith
Everything Will Be Alright, Tessa Hadley
Winter, Ali Smith
Autumn, Ali Smith
Small World, Laura Zigman
Mercy Street, Jennifer Haigh
After This, Alice McDermott
Hope, Andrew Ridker
Normal Rules Do Not Apply, Kate Atkinson
Heat and Light, Jennifer Haigh
Child of My Heart, Alice McDermott
The Ninth Hour, Alice McDermott
The Midcoast, Adam White
* Charming Billy, Alice McDermott
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, Lorrie Moore
The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese
A History of Burning, Janika Oza
Clever Girl, Tessa Hadley
Someone, Alice McDermott
The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor
The Past, Tessa Hadley
The House Is On Fire, Rachel Beanland
Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, Henry Grabar
The Whiteness of Bones, Susanna Moore
The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World, Malcolm Gaskill
*The House on Salt Hay Road, Carin Clevidence
One Last Look, Susanna Moore
Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead
The Whalebone Theatre, Joanna Quinn
The Life of Objects, Susanna Moore
Dinosaurs, Lydia Millet
The East Indian, Brinda Charry
The Lost Wife, Susanna Moore
The Trackers, Charles Frazier
Beyond That, the Sea, Laura Spence-Ash
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, J. Ryan Stradal
On the Rooftop, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
The Weeds, Katy Simpson Smith
Walk The Blue Fields, Claire Keegan
This Other Eden, Paul Harding
Stealing, Margaret Verble
Kunstlers In Paradise, Cathleen Schine
The Sun Walks Down, Fiona McFarlane
Saving Time, Jenny Odell
We Are A Haunting, Tyriek White
Wifey, Judy Blume
Kantika, Elizabeth Graver
In The Unlikely Event, Judy Blume
Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton
The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Pineapple Street, Jenny Jackson
Take What You Need, Idra Novey
The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett
Palo Alto: A History of California, Capital & the World, Malcolm Harris
Fire Rush, Jacqueline Crooks
Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson
Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy
Ways To Disappear, Idra Novey
The Christie Affair, Nina de Gramont
Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
I Have Some Questions For You, Rebecca Makkai
Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett
In Memoriam, Alice Winn
Foster, Claire Keegan
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
Murder On the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
Greenland, David Santos Donaldson
The Woman Upstairs, Claire Messud
Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett
The Hundred-Year House, Rebecca Makkai
The Mysterious Affair At Styles, Agatha Christie
*Redwall, Brian Jacques
The Old Place, Bobby Finger
Mort, Terry Pratchett
The House With the Golden Door, Elodie Harper
The Lesser Bohemians, Eimar McBride
The Wolf Den, Elodie Harper
Checkout 19, Claire-Louise Bennett
Elektra, Jennifer Saint
Stay True, Hua Hsu
We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, Fintan O’Toole
An Olive Grove In Ends, Moses McKenzie
The Witch and the Tsar, Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
* Ladder of Years, Anne Tyler
Noah’s Compass, Anne Tyler
Black Cloud Rising, David Wright Faraday
A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler
The Hero of This Book, Elizabeth McCracken
Digging to America, Anne Tyler
Earthly Possessions, Anne Tyler
A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler
Clock Dance, Anne Tyler
All This Could Be Different, Sarah Thankam Matthews
French Braid, Anne Tyler
Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Kevin Wilson
2022
The Cherry Robbers, Sarai Walker
Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout
Midwinter Break, Bernard MacLaverty
Amity Street, Kitty Burns Florey
Sister Noon, Karen Joy Fowler
Shrines of Gaiety, Kate Atkinson
My Notorious Life, Kate Manning
The Story of a Marriage, Andrew Sean Greer
The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
Booth, Karen Joy Fowler
The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Andrew Sean Greer
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, Andrew Sean Greer
The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell
Horse, Geraldine Brooks
Less Is Lost, Andrew Sean Greer
The Personal Librarian, Marie Benedict
When Two Feathers Fell From The Sky, Margaret Verble
Maude’s Line, Margaret Verble
Dangerous Women, Hope Adams
Joan Is Okay, Weike Wang
Island Queen, Vanessa Riley
If I Survive You, Jonathan Escoffery
*The Bone People, Keri Hulme
Faithful Place, Tana French
The Searcher, Tana French
The Witch Elm, Tana French
Night of the Living Rez, Morgan Talty
In The Gloaming, Alice Elliott Dark
The Mercies, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The Song Of Achilles, Madeline Miller
The Last Karankawas, Kimberly Garza
The Secret Chord, Geraldine Brooks
*People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Foreign Correspondance, Geraldine Brooks
Calling For A Blanket Dance, Oscar Hokeah
Think Of England, Alice Elliott Dark
Te Kaihau – The Windeater, Keri Hulme
Holy Fools, Joanne Harris
Big Girl, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier
Fellowship Point, Alice Elliott Dark
Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier
Bleaker House, Nell Stevens
In the Great Green Room, Amy Gary
The Truth According to Us, Annie Barrows
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (heh ;0) Diana Gabaldon
Briefly, A Delicious Life, Nell Stevens
The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters
All’s Well, Mona Awad
Conjure Women, Afia Atakora
The Promise, Damon Galgut
Love and Fury, Samantha Silva
Echo Mountain, Lauren Wolk
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams
!Fortune, Lenny Bartulin
What My Bones Know, Stephanie Foo
Dirtbag, Massachusetts, Isaac Fitzgerald
The Angel of Rome and other stories, Jess Walter
The Burning Girl, Claire Messud
Companion Piece, Ali Smith
The Poet’s House, Jean Thompson
Woman of Light, Kali Fajardo-Anstine
The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
*A Wrinkle In Time, Madeline L’Engle
I Used To Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys, Miranda Seymour
The Shadow King, Maaza Mengiste
In The Face Of the Sun, Denny S Bryce
The Secret Women, Sheila Williams
The Good Wife Of Bath, Karen Brooks
The Idiot, Elif Batuman
Things Past Telling, Sheila Williams
In The Kitchen, Monica Ali
Brick Lane, Monica Ali
End Of the World House, Adrienne Celt
Love Marriage, Monica Ali
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub
Either/Or, Elif Batuman
*Summerland, Michael Chabon
Mean Baby, Selma Blair
* A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
The Apology, Eve Ensler
The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
Unlikely Animals, Annie Hartnett
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
Free Love, Tessa Hadley
Young Mungo, Douglas Stuart
Abandonment, Kate Atkinson
Punch Me Up To The Gods, Brian Broome
*The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson
Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson
The Vacationers, Emma Straub
The Invisible Kingdom, Meghan O’Rourke
The Fell, Sarah Moss
The Great Alone, Kristen Hannah
Shit Cassandra Saw, Gwen E Kirby
Olga Dies Dreaming, Xochitl Gonzalez
Ancestor Trouble, Maud Newton
Of Women and Salt, Gabriella Garcia
Five Tuesdays in Winter, Lily King
Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen
Storyteller, Leslie Marmon Silko
Crying In H Mart, Michelle Zauner
* Rilla of Ingleside, LM Montgomery
*Rainbow Valley, LM Montgomery
*Anne of Ingleside, LM Montgomery
*Anne’s House of Dreams, LM Montgomery
*Anne of Windy Poplars, LM Montgomery
*Anne of The Island, LM Montgomery
*Anne of Avonlea, LM Montgomery
*Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
Upper Bohemia, Hayden Herrera
Devil House, John Darnielle
Homeland Elegies, Ayad Akhtar
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
Our Country Friends, Gary Shteyngart
Afterlife, Julia Alvarez
I Came All This Way To Meet You, Jami Attenburg
*all about love, bell hooks
Taft, Ann Patchett
Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson
The Sentence, Louise Erdrich
The Five Wounds, Kirstin Valdez Quade
We Live In Water, Jess Walter
*LaRose, Louise Erdrich
All Grown Up, Jami Attenberg
Tacky, Rax King
Oh, William!, Elizabeth Strout
The Cold Millions, Jess Walter
*The Plague Of Doves, Louise Erdrich
Becoming Belle, Nuala O’Connor
Miss Emily, Nuala O’Connor
Deceived With Kindness, Angelica Garnett
The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris
Sin Eater, Megan Campisi
All the Beloved Ghosts, Alison MacLeod
The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done, Sandra Newman
*Dubliners, James Joyce
Nora, Nuala O’Connor
The Changeling, Alison MacLeod
The Giant’s House, Elizabeth McCracken
Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry, Elizabeth McCracken
An Exact Replica of A Figment of My Imagination, Elizabeth McCracken
All This Could Be Yours, Jami Attenberg
Thunderstruck, Elizabeth McCracken
The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah
All About Me!, Mel Brooks
Saint Mazie, Jami Attenburg
Transcription, Kate Atkinson
Festival Days, Jo Ann Beard
The Heavens, Sandra Newman
February ❤️❄️✨🦉🌕Greetings 